Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Report: Spokane Shine select Dan Philp as new head coach

With an announcement to come within the next week, INWsoccernews has learned from two sources close to the choice that the Spokane Shine of the Women’s Premier Soccer League have chosen Dan Philp, a current coach with the Spokane SC Shadow youth soccer club, as its new head coach. The news comes as schedules and new Shine venue details are also coming to light.

The Englishman has been a fixture in Spokane soccer since 2007 when he joined the Spokane Spiders of the USL Premier Development League as a head coach and player. Philp went on to play four total seasons with the PDL team though he did not coach beyond the first campaign, which turned out to be the team’s best in its four-year existence. The London native was 6-10 in their inaugural outing with the team posting a combined record of 8-36-4 the next three years.

Philp also began his youth coaching career in 2007 with Spokane SC, which merged with the Shadow youth club a year ago. He spent two seasons coaching at East Valley High School and has been an Idaho ODP head coach since 2011.

The Shine also recently unveiled their 2013 schedule on its website, unveiling an expected move from established Joe Albi Stadium to the newly-renovated Spokane Falls Community College soccer facility.

The Shine are not concerned with the move to the Falls with a spokesman from the club saying SFCC “is a community partnership and we look forward to playing in this fine venue and calling it the home of the Shine. The team will utilize SFCC for both practices and home matches. We see SFCC as a perfect fit for the Shine and have nothing but positive (things) to say in regards to the transition to this facility. Several local clubs have already been using the turf field and the feedback has been really good.”

External SFCC renovations (click for larger view)

The 10-game schedule was also revealing in that it showed the club will be squeezing their entire campaign into a five-week stretch from Saturday, June 1 to Friday, July 5. The Shine will open with two home games before playing three consecutive on the road versus their Seattle opposition. Spokane hosts the next two before heading on their lone trip to Oregon to face two of the four teams south of the Columbia River before wrapping up the season against the Seattle Reign Reserves, formerly known as Issaquah SC [See schedule below].

As reported earlier, the expanded Northwest Division will feature the four Washington clubs playing each other home and away and taking on the four Oregon clubs once each, two home and two away. All three new teams will all visit the Shine this season, beginning with the Westside Timbers in the season opener. Spokane will host Tualatin Hills United SC and AC Seattle in back-to-back games in the middle of the campaign. As noted in the earlier report, the winners of the two subdivisions within the Northwest Division will square off in a single-game divisional playoff hosted by the Washington side in 2013 and the Oregon winner in 2014.

The entire division will be playing in the same window, allowing for late arrival of players and so that the conference tournament to be played the weekend of July 12-14. According to the Eugene Metro FC schedule the Azul will kick off their season at home May 31st with their finale coming July 7, the final of four consecutive home games [see schedule below]. AC Seattle’s schedule is even tighter than Spokane’s with the club kicking off a week later [see schedule below].

Eugene will be holding tryouts May 5 with training camp commencing May 14. The Seattle Reign Reserves presented by Issaquah SC held their tryouts in conjunction with the NWSL professional team they are partnered with and AC Seattle, the new Italian-flavored side, is holding tryouts this weekend, March 30.

Robertson vs Spartans (credit: GCFC)

Robertson Scores for Glasgow City
Former Spokane Shine midfielder and Scottish youth international defender Lisa Robertson is already making a splash with her new Scottish side, SWPL powerhouse Glasgow City. The longtime Hibernian joined the Champions League side upon her return to Scotland after spending the 2012 campaign with the Shine.

In her second league game with the club Saturday, Robertson was moved from her long established defensive position to the left midfield position she became accustom to in Spokane, getting several scoring opportunities and scoring the close-range equalizer at the back post off a cross as Glasgow City went on to claim a 3-1 victory against Spartans, who fifth in the table last year as GCFC went 20-1-0 to win the league handily.